Cricket Match Makes History at Central Broward Regional Park- Stadium Certified by the International Cricket Council -

More than 7,500 people turned out In May 2010 for the Pearls Cup, a highly competitive Twenty20 (T20) match in which Sri Lanka and the New Zealand BLACKCAPS each took one game. The event marked the first international cricket match to be played by full International Cricket Council (ICC) members in the United States, played at the only ICC-certified cricket stadium in North America.

The historic competition saw the Sri Lankan and New Zealand teams fresh from the recent World T20 tournament in the West Indies. The BLACKCAPS won the first game on Saturday. On Sunday, New Zealand got the advantage by winning the toss and batting first, but Sri Lanka ultimately prevailed, cruising to a seven-wicket win over the BLACKCAPS.

BLACKCAPS batsman Daniel Vettori was later quoted on his team’s Website as saying the event “has certainly given USA cricket a profile, and I think that’s the biggest thing to come from that. Both teams really enjoyed coming here. In the future, we will talk to other players around the world and will tell them what a good time we had. Tell them how good the facilities are and you will get other teams coming along and enjoying it just as much as we did.” Asked about the stadium, Vettori, who was named Man of the Series, told ESPN, “It’s a beautiful ground… I’d come back anytime.”

The match represents the launch of a new strategic partnership between USA Cricket and New Zealand Cricket to advance the sport in the United States, where cricket is growing fast. After soccer, it’s the second-most-popular sport in the world, and there are an estimated 15 million cricket fans in this country. ESPN broadcast both Sri Lanka-New Zealand games to 88 countries.

The event also featured a pair of games that pitted the USA team against Jamaica, which won on Saturday. On Sunday the Americans played what dreamcricket.com called “their best match of the weekend, but couldn’t overcome a series of drops and misfields as they fell short…” Jamaica went on to handily complete its sweep by winning the second T20 match on Sunday.